This study presents an inquiry into the relevance of Bildung for students in (pre-) vocational education. While Bildung has seen a remarkable revival in international educational theory, its relevance for educational practice(s) remains under-investigated, particularly in vocational education. This paper presents the insights offered by a…

This article seeks to contribute to recent theorizing around the concept of powerful knowledge. I begin with a discussion of the current use of the term in both academia and the wider institutional environment of schools. I then give a detailed account of its origins in social realism before exploring different iterations of the concept in recent…

Empirical research on teachers' professional knowledge is mostly conducted worldwide with reference to the construct 'pedagogical content knowledge' (PCK) introduced by Lee S. Shulman. In the 'Consensus Model' (CM) and the 'Refined Consensus Model' (RCM), PCK was further developed and differentiated. Nevertheless, neither PCK nor CM and RCM…

Teachers are concerned with both student engagement and achievement of learning outcomes. Both are necessary, yet often considered in disconnected ways. We argue that such disconnection is a consequence of competing educational purposes, combined with an organizational framework for schooling that attempts to paste over the differences by…

Building on and going beyond Young and Muller's theory of powerful knowledge, this article seeks to articulate a model of a future-oriented, knowledge-rich curriculum by invoking David Lambert's "capabilities" approach and "Bildung"-centred "Didaktik." The curriculum is "knowledge rich" in three respects.…

In this intellectual history, the author traces the refashioning, fall, and re-emergence of the reception of Dewey's work between 1960 and 1988 by student-centred radicals, de-schooling advocates, neo-Marxists, critical educators, and feminist pedagogues--scholars collectively known as the New Left. New Left scholars rejected the assimilationist,…

This inquiry explores the scholarly influence of Elliot Eisner by examining how ideas derived from his scholarship have spread. The study begins with Eisner's bio-sketch and a literature review on the history of ideas and the use of knowledge in education, followed by descriptions of this paper's research method and data sources. The analysis…

Human Science Pedagogy is 'a strange case,' as Jürgen Oelkers has recently noted: In the Anglophone world, where Gert Biesta has compellingly encouraged scholars to 'reconsider education as a Geisteswissenschaft' (a human science) its main themes and the contributions of its central figures remain unknown. For Germans, particularly in more…

Character Education in the UK is often considered controversial through its perceived neoliberal individualizing of character, disregarding of young people's moral agency, and blindness to the effect of social structures. This article presents an alternative framework for character educators, focussed on the biographical narratives of the students…

Following the continental tradition of phenomenological pedagogy, this paper focuses on the lived time and space of school -- and on contexts in which school is understood as a democratic community. It does so by comparing and contrasting related works of G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831), Martinus Langeveld (1905-1989) and Eugen Fink (1905-1975). It shows…

The purpose of this study is to describe an alternative understanding of "Bildung-centred Didaktik" through an examination of Wilhelm von Humboldt's conception and practice of educational reform--"Bildungsreform," 1809-1810--in which the concept of science ("Wissenschaft") was regarded as the fundamental goal and…

To make historical consciousness beneficial for history education research we need to disentangle its multidisciplinary backgrounds so that contradictory approaches and outcomes can be avoided. The aim of this article therefore is to clarify the enigma of its different paradigms. We will discuss two interrelated paradigms: one interpreting…

The intent of this article is to explore the scholarly influence of Philip W. Jackson through examining the spread of his scholarship and the ideas he generated. The research design of this paper is borrowed from a previous study (Ben-Peretz & Craig, 2018) about another distinguished curriculum scholar, Joseph J. Schwab. The work begins with a…

Joseph Schwab's famous remark, that the field of curriculum is 'moribund'--no longer able 'to …contribute significantly to the advancement of education'--has long echoed in curriculum studies. Although its specific meaning has changed, it still rings in our ears today. It now applies as much to discussions in the United States and United Kingdom…

We identify a recent trend in school mathematics as well as in some of the research literature in mathematics education: an emphasis on the practical uses of mathematics and an increased emphasis on verbalizations as opposed to numerical and computational skills. With tools provided by John Dewey, an early advocate of contextual and practical…